Retailers and other persons frequently use slatwall panels or similar fixtures to hold and display merchandise. A conventional slatwall features panels which are fabricated from wood, metal or another suitable material and typically have slots or other structures milled into a face of the slatwall. The slots or other structures are configured to receive display hooks, shelves or other merchandise supports.
Typical slatwalls may be fabricated as panels of various sizes which are secured to existing interior building walls or, alternatively, assembled into free-standing structures. Typical slatwall panels can be large or heavy and thus inconvenient to move, limiting the utility of conventional slatwall structures for temporary use such as at a tradeshow.
DePottey, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,467, addresses some of the shortcomings exhibited by typical slatwall panels for use as temporary or mobile displays. In particular, DePottey teaches a modular system where a freestanding slatwall structure is made up of individual slat members stacked one upon the other and supported by appropriately spaced upright support members. Each of the panels assembled from individual slat members has a front side which is configured to receive support hooks or other attachment devices and a back side which will not receive hooks. Thus, if a two-sided display panel is desired, DePottey expressly teaches that two separate panels be attached to a support structure in a back-to-back fashion.
Radek, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,753, teaches a similar modular slatwall structure which includes horizontally oriented slats held in a vertical arrangement by supports. As was the case with the structure taught by DePottey, the Radek structure, when assembled, forms a panel which is only suitable for receiving slatwall hooks or other supporting devices on one side.
Mayer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,783, does teach a two-sided slatwall advertising panel. The individual slats of Mayer are however relatively complex extruded shapes which have flanges and channels formed therein which provide for interconnection between adjacent slats. The Mayer slats must be relatively precisely fabricated to provide for appropriately rigid interconnection. In addition, the slats must be slid transversely or lengthwise with respect to each other to interconnect. Thus, the apparatus of Mayer may be relatively difficult to assemble.
The present disclosure includes embodiments directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.